Is there ways to make donations (without) subscribe/have accounts

[sylvain]

Hi

When i go to https://www.heliohost.org/donate i see options as Paypal and Skrillit

When i just for checking "test" point mouse on Paypal i see the link: https://paypal.me/heliohost/ but on Skrillit i see https://www.skrill.com/skrillit/?locale=en-us . So by comparing i see on one hand an url with the word "Heliohost" on the other hand "i dont see the word" (heliohost). Wich at some point could question the peoples that would like to make some donations, because on one hand it is writen "Heliohost" and the other "no url heliohost".

Seem that both services require to create or have some account linked to the user money. So if there is some security issue (linked to the company "or" security issue of the users), then some bad intents of some peoples could access the user money. I suggest that you would add some other company to donate, that (dont need create/have accounts) to make some donations. Maybe GoFundMe (dont know how it work) or some others.

[wolstech]

We accept crypto for that purpose.

1 hour ago, sylvain said:

Hi

When i go to https://www.heliohost.org/donate i see options as Paypal and Skrillit

When i just for checking "test" point mouse on Paypal i see the link: https://paypal.me/heliohost/ but on Skrillit i see https://www.skrill.com/skrillit/?locale=en-us . So by comparing i see on one hand an url with the word "Heliohost" on the other hand "i dont see the word" (heliohost).

I'm not sure why the Skrill URL is like that...perhaps it doesn't support it? Users would need to send money to admin@heliohost.org if it needs an email address.

1 hour ago, sylvain said:

Seem that both services require to create or have some account linked to the user money. So if there is some security issue (linked to the company "or" security issue of the users), then some bad intents of some peoples could access the user money. I suggest that you would add some other company to donate, that (dont need create/have accounts) to make some donations. Maybe GoFundMe (dont know how it work) or some others.

It is neither possible nor our responsibility to ensure the security of a third party service's user accounts. If someone signs up for Paypal then falls for phishing and gets their bank account drained, that's on them. We don't allow phishing and similar illegal activity to be hosted here, but we can't control what happens outside of our servers.

As for GFM, we often do use it for fundraisers, but the fact they don't really provide enough information for us to link the donation to a person makes it less than ideal.

 

[sylvain]

Since you indicate that you often do use GFM for fundraisers. It could be very nice that you simply put some url link to it on https://www.heliohost.org/donate , after the users simply indicate you the infos so you can check the donations made. Id like to know the url to GoFundMe for Heliohost and i'm sure that peoples would like also to know that way also to do donations. It also better because it give more ways for peoples make donations to you. Thanks for your time. A+

[wolstech]

We don't have one open year round. We only offer GFM during planned fundraisers, not for every day donations. When such a fundraiser is being held, there will be a News post with the link, and I believe the progress banners we post on our website and forum normally link to it as well.

[sylvain]

That's great to have other ways for peoples to donate (without) having to create some accounts. Like that the percentage of peoples that want to donate "without" having to create some accounts/subscribe is real neat. So like that if i can again give you some donations, then i will be happy to do so. I do believe that at leas i have donated 3 or maybe 4 time to you and happy to encourage yourself. You are great peoples that i like and appreciate very much! 👍

[Krydos]

8 hours ago, wolstech said:

I'm not sure why the Skrill URL is like that...perhaps it doesn't support it?

The last time I looked at Skrill there was no way to link to our account directly. You just have to go to Skrill and type in our email address. Honestly I'm thinking about getting rid of the Skrill account entirely though because they keep asking for bank account verification, and they won't accept our Chase business account anymore. Ashoat is going to have to link his personal account, get it verified, then transfer the money out, and give it back to HelioHost. This wasn't an issue a few years ago because Skrill accepted our business account for verification.

4 hours ago, wolstech said:

We don't have one open year round.

In the past I've just left the previous fundraiser open until the next fundraiser starts. Since they shutdown charity.gofundme.com though they forced it closed so we had no choice.

3 hours ago, sylvain said:

That's great to have other ways for peoples to donate (without) having to create some accounts.

I can't test it right now because paypal.me is apparently having some downtime, but it used to be that you didn't need a paypal account to donate. You could just type in a credit card number.

[sylvain]

No need for me now to do donation, i have some debts to pay. Also i prefer GoFundMe, not PayPal; (maybe i'm not the only one "as zero %") that like GFM. I think there is some other donation third party, that is called (Started/Startup/Starter or Starting) well something like that. I suggest it could possibly when time come, that the donation maybe be called as: PleskHeliohost2022. Much later it could be possibly named: PleskHeliohost2023. It is just some idea for name donation, wonder what you think about it?

Having these "suggested" names for donation might also help you organize. Also because of the name donation can help you pin-point the donation. The users could also indicate with some donation number and infos they receive, tell that the donation was for (as example) PleskHeliohost2024; with there donation number and infos they received.

A+😉

[Krydos]

On 8/1/2022 at 6:45 PM, Krydos said:

I can't test it right now because paypal.me is apparently having some downtime, but it used to be that you didn't need a paypal account to donate. You could just type in a credit card number.

Yeah, it looks like they changed it. The only thing it lets you do is log in or create an account.

Interestingly enough you don't have to create a PayPal account to pay for a VPS though. You can click debit/credit card and creating an account is optional.

[nuk]

On 8/2/2022 at 7:09 PM, sylvain said:

Also i prefer GoFundMe, not PayPal; (maybe i'm not the only one "as zero %") that like GFM

You can donate with zero fees with PayPal and Facebook. I just tested a $1 minimum donation on PayPal and $5 minimum on Facebook, and it appears they even covered the credit card processing fees. GoFundMe has large fees from what I see. On a $5 donation, 2.2% + $0.30 = $0.41, which is over 8% of the donation going to fees. https://www.gofundme.com/c/pricing

Visit Heliohost's PayPal Giving Fund page at https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/2598664. 

From the Facebook mobile app, there is also a fee-free donate button on Heliohost's page. I don't see it on the browser website for whatever reason. Maybe Meta Pay is only an app feature and not on web https://www.facebook.com/HelioHost.org? It may also be limited to certain countries, idk. Also when I was making the donation, a footnote said there are no fees "for now", implying Factbook will start charging fees at some point.

Edited January 2, 2023 by nuk
GoFundMe charges 2.2% for charities, a discount from the 2.9% they charge everyone else

[nuk]

On 8/1/2022 at 6:45 PM, Krydos said:

In the past I've just left the previous fundraiser open until the next fundraiser starts. Since they shutdown charity.gofundme.com though they forced it closed so we had no choice.

It appears you can now register as a charity at GoFundMe to accept donations year-round https://www.gofundme.com/c/charity-fundraising

I'll still do my donations via PayPal to avoid the fees, but more services almost certainly means more donors who couldn't otherwise be bothered to make an account on yet another site.

[wolstech]

I remember the one thing Krydos hated about GFM was that during our last fundraiser, GFM wouldn't give us any meaningful information on our donors (specifically an email address), which made it a challenge to match donations to users...I forget the reason they gave (EU data privacy laws perhaps?), but I remember it seeming like nonsense considering Paypal shares that same information with us without any issue. With GFM we had to hope the person would post and ask about the gift we were offering, then manually assign the donation to them...

Not saying we couldn't accept GFM year around, but we'd probably specify that GFM donors will not receive Tommy invites/extra space/etc. I doubt Krydos would want to constantly process GFM donations manually, especially when Paypal already can do it automatically.

[Krydos]

I did eventually get all the email addresses and donation information. It was a mess for a few weeks though trying to figure out which donation went with which person. I had to contact GoFundMe support and get them to give me access or something. It's been a few years so I'm not sure what the problem was exactly.